By Avenash Ramzan
“I was like you one day,” West Indies leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo told a group of aspiring cricketers on Saturday.
“So don’t give up on your dreams,” he added.
The Albion-born Guyanese cricketer was at the time speaking to students of West Demerara Secondary School as part of the Digicel Youth Cricket Series, a Caribbean-wide initiative of the telecommunication company ahead of the Hero Caribbean Premier League.
Bishoo, part of the West Indies squad for the two ODIs against Bangladesh in Guyana on Sunday (July 22) and Wednesday (July 25), is the Brand Ambassador of Digicel Guyana.
“I’m sure all of you want to one day play for the West Indies…right?” Bishoo asked, to which the students responded in the affirmative.
“It’s the best thing that could happen to any cricketer; to play at the highest level. It’s a wonderful experience,” the 32-year-old ‘leggie’ said.
Bishoo told the students that as a little boy growing up he always used to look up to cricketers of that time, and always held the desire to one day emulate them.
He told the students of being Guyana’s senior team room attendant whenever regional matches were hosted at Albion, and having to attend to players like Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Leon Johnson and Assad Fudadin whom he would later become teammates with on the Guyana team.
“So you have to start somewhere; I can say that I started right from the bottom and had to work my way up through room attendant, Under-15, Under-17, Under-19 and then senior. It wasn’t easy, but you have to be disciplined, dedicated and determined if you want to get places in this game,” Bishoo advised.
In the midst of the chit-chat, Bishoo demonstrated the different ways of gripping the cricket ball to create the desired effect, and how to exercise control at the point of release.
Prior to Bishoo’s arrival at the event, which was hosted at the Georgetown Cricket Club, Bourda, coaches Esaun Crandon and Michael Franco Hyles, took the students through their paces, touching on various aspects of the game.
Crandon is Bishoo’s Head Coach with the Guyana Jaguars, while Hyles was the one who helped to develop the leg-spinner’s craft from as young as 12.
The Digicel Youth Series is an initiative in partnership with the Hero Caribbean Premier League whereby high schools across six Caribbean countries will have the opportunity to participate in a coaching session with Hero CPL coaches and players.
West Demerara Secondary emerged as the winner of the Guyana competition after gaining the most votes. Voting was done online at www.digicelguyana.com/cplyouthseries.
Read about Bishoo’s visit to Berbice High School: http://newsroom.gy/2018/04/23/digicels-surprise-visit-by-bishoo-wows-berbice-students/
